Hi, I'm Ravi Agrawal, Foreign Policy's Editor-in-Chief. This is FP Live.

Welcome to the show. This one's a bonus episode. World leaders are in New York for the so-called

high-level week of the United Nations General Assembly. But a big global presence won't mask the fact

that it's been a difficult year for the UN. You could say that the United Nations is looking

pretty divided. The crises in Gaza, Ukraine, and to a degree Sudan split member states at the highest levels,

including in the Security Council.

They also shine a spotlight on inconsistencies in how countries act,

on how they manage their commitment to rules, especially when it goes against their interests.

The disunity is bad enough on its own,

but it also means cooperation on climate change

and a range of other important issues

in the Sustainable Development Goals lag far behind.

Well, my guest this week is Richard Gowan.

He's the UN Director for the International Crisis Group and one of the smartest

observers I know of the international body. We discuss the mood at the UN right now and how its

divisions compare with other moments in history. We also look at whether talks to reform the

Security Council have any teeth behind them. Remember, you can catch

these conversations live on our website. Subscribers can watch the full back catalogue and also ask

questions, which as you'll see, we often use. And if you want to reach us, try our email,

live at foreign policy.com. Let's dive in.

Richard, welcome to FP Live. Thank you very much for the invitation. So I call the

United Nations divided, and to some extent it's always been divided, and nations try to

...